Woman with Medway connection admits to using fake Marathon bib

Saturday

Apr 26, 2014 at 1:15 AM

By Zachary ComeauDaily News Staff

MEDWAY - The wife of former Medway resident and Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley admitted to using a fake Marathon bib number to run the Boston Marathon Monday.Longtime Selectman Dennis Crowley, who is the father of Dennis Crowley, confirmed Friday that Chelsa Crowley, a New York city stylist and fashion writer, used the number in order to run the race with her husband. He said the two ran last year but were separated when the bombs exploded.This year, Crowley said, they wanted to finish the race together.WCVB-TV Channel 5, a media partner of the Milford Daily News, first reported that after the race on Monday, Framingham resident Kathy Brown saw another woman wearing her bib number in official Boston Marathon photos.Brown told Channel 5 that she had raised thousands of dollars for charity."I opened it up looking for the pictures of me and there were some in there and they came out really good, but then I saw this other woman," said Brown.Brown told WCVB-TV she was stunned to see a woman wearing a bib with her number. It's a number she said she earned by following the rules and raising money to fight multiple sclerosis, a disease that claimed her uncle's life."I was a little dumbstruck. I didn't get it at first. I said Marathonfoto must have gotten me confused with someone else," said Brown.Looking closer, Brown noticed a Twitter handle on the bib and it didn't take her long to figure out it was Chelsa Crowley."I put that work in it and it wasn't fair that someone else didn't have to do that. That was my first thought," said Brown.Medway Selectman Dennis Crowley, who said his son was instructed not to speak to the press, said both his son and then-girlfriend Chelsa ran last year and were separated when the two bombs exploded near the finish line."She finished, he didn’t," Crowley said. "They wanted to run together this year."Crowley said his son "broke down" toward the end of the race last year and told Chelsa to finish without him. She finished about three minutes before the bombs went off, separating the couple when runners were stopped in Newton and prevented from finishing.Crowley said he didn't know Chelsa's bib was a fake.He added that his daughter-in-law’s story is "not all negative.""It’s like a love story," Crowley said, adding that their "goal" was to run the race this year as husband and wife. The couple married in October.On April 4, Chelsa Crowley tweeted that she was "hoping to run" and was "still looking for a bib."On Monday, someone tweeted "Fake Bib? 34033," to which she replied, "Shh!"A spokesperson for the Boston Athletic Association said the rules are clear: no one is allowed to wear the bib number of an official entrant.In a written statement, the BAA told Team 5 they'll review all complaints, including this one "with full consideration to the impact of cheating on those who have worked so hard to qualify and those who give so much of themselves to raise money for our outstanding local charities."In the past, some individuals who have been found to have duplicated bibs have been disallowed from running future marathons and other BAA races.According to the Boston Athletic Association, Dennis Crowley finished the race at 5:01 p.m., and Brown finished at 5:04 p.m. Chelsa Crowley does not have an official time because she was not registered.Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.Zachary Comeau can be reached at 508-634-7556 and zcomeau@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @ZComeau_MDN.